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Pandora
Pandora is a British mystery drama thriller television series developed by Reece Bridgwater and produced by Jaba Studios. From its premiere, it was distributed on Revma, Jaba Studios' streaming service. Show-runner Reece Bridgwater additionally served as an execute-producer alongside Michael Henderson, Alice Warren and Ellen Donaghy. The series is set in a fictional English town named Pandora, and focuses on the break-down of the towns community, police-force, and specifically four students lives after the murder of a teenage girl named Charlotte Gibbins, as well as the scandals following this event. It features an ensemble cast, including Yara Shandi, Shawn Pyfrom, Amanda Seyfried, Nathan Kress and Gina Rodriguez Since the series began, Pandora has remained popular, with every season increasing in viewers and critical acclaim, with praise directed towards the extreme twists within the writing, character development and score. As a result of this, the show has won multiple awards across its seven years, such as Best Drama Series at the BAFTAs in 2011. It was confirmed by Revma that a seventh and final season of Pandora had begun production with a 15 episode order in November 2014. Filming of the series officially ended on June 15, 2016, with the series premiering on streaming platforms on September 30th of the same year. On April 21, 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported that Jaba Studios had begun production on a spin-off mystery thriller drama series for Pandora ''to premiere in 2018, featuring both old and new characters. Subsequent reports confirmed the decision, stating that a secondary story arc covering the entirety of the seventh season of ''Pandora ''would serve as a backdoor pilot for the spin-off, which would be called ''Fabrication. Overview Cast Main article: List of Pandora characters During its premiere season, the show featured thirteen starring actors, all credited in the opening sequence. For the show's second year, several actors, mainly friend, family and partners who had guest starred during the first season, were promoted to series regulars without having their names included in the opening sequence. Instead, they were billed as "also starring" during the first minutes of each episode, together with episode guest stars. This practice continued throughout. Episodes Main article: List of Pandora episodes Season 1 Main article: Season 1 (Pandora) The first season premiered on October 11th, 2011, and introduces the four central characters of the show: Amber Hotchkiss, Andrew Corner, Eleanor Oxbridge and Richard Bolton, as well as their families, friends, partners, and fellow students in the town of Pandora. The unexpected murder of the groups newest member Charlotte Gibbins is the catalyst of the main mystery of the season, with the students becoming entangled in a web of secrets, conspiracy and corruption after they attempt to uncover Charlotte's killer. The first seasons also deals with each student's individual problems. Amber is forced to shoplift expensive items in order to help her mother out of debt and deals with the repercussions; Andrew becomes borderline-obsessed with his new neighbour James Bridgwater; Eleanor Oxbridge notably suffers and grieves for Charlotte the most, making sure his image is dignified but discovers his dark secrets; and Richard, under-pressure, begins to take sport-enhancing drugs. Production Conception and development Reece Bridgwater originally wrote Pandora as a young adult novel in 2008, however, knowing that television scripts paid more, he wrote a television version as a spec script before it became a novel. Since no studio or network had asked him to write it, and he would not get paid unless it sold, Bridgwater said that "it was never a very pressing project for me". Tinkering with it from time to time, Bridgwater wrote project notes a year before he actually started writing the television script. Most of his original ideas made it into the script, but some changed drastically. Bridgwater wrote the story about a murder from the police's point-of-view in the small town of Pandora and the investigation following it, instead of a murder from the both the police and communities point-of-view. Bridgwater had difficulty getting any television network interested in his new series; BBC, ITV, and HBO all turned the show down. Finally, two new executives at Jaba Studios, Michael Henderson, Ellen Donaghy, chose to greenlight it in February 2007, as there was a gap in the market for a murder-drama. The Jaba Studios executives were not initially satisfied with the name of the new show, suggesting "Can You Keep a Secret?" instead. However, on May 23, 2008, Pandora was announced by the studio, presented as the "Latest Need to Watch Show". Alice Warren was added as an executive producer for the pilot episode, helping set a basis for the show. On September 18, 2008, Jaba Studios announced the 2008–9 lineup, with Pandora in the Fridays at 9:00–10:00pm slot, which changed throughout the run of the show. The program was renewed for a second season on January 11, 2009, in the same Friday timeslot. Bridgwater stated that the second season would increase from 10 to 15 episodes due to the popularity and demand of the series. Interestingly, the decision to create a main-arc covering the entire season, and a secondary-arc being introduced in the "back seven" order was created to maintain interest across the season. The show was renewed for a third season, on October 26th 2009, just a week after the premiere of the second season. Just like the previous season, this season would be split into two runs of uninterrupted episodes, with an increase of 16 episodes - 8 episodes in Autumn and 8 in Spring; this trend would continue for the rest of the show. The show remained at the 9:00-10:00pm slot, however moved to Thursdays with the "hope to increase viewership in the first 24 hours". Bridgwater said that Pandora would be on television for a few more years, stating that the show has "so much more potential". In January 2012, Bridgwater signed a two-year deal with Jaba Studios that could keep Pandora on the air until 2014. This in Season 4 and Season 5's storylines and early-development occurring at the same time, allowing for minor and recurring actors to be signed on for two seasons instead of one. The stars of Pandora finalized new deals to make way for the five season and signed at the price of £4.5 million. Originally, Bridgwater hinted that Pandora would end in February 2016 with Season 6 after another lengthy-break. Yet in the December of 2015, Warren confirmed that there would definitely be a seventh season and expressed hopes for an eighth. Pandora was officially renewed by Jaba Studios on January 2nd, 2016 for a seventh season. Last Season & Spin-off However on the 26th April 2016, it was confirmed that the seventh season of Pandora would be the final season as the writing-team had "created the perfect tie-up ending to the show". Although, a spin-off, named "Fabrication", would be premiering the year after, with the last season of Pandora ''serving as the backdoor pilot for the show. Bridgwater, the show's creator, made a cameo as a dead body in the final episode. Filming Pandora was filmed exclusively digitally, using the Arri Alexa. Furthermore, it was broadcasted in 16:9 widescreen high definition throughout the seven seasons. The set for ''Pandora, as well as the surrounding areas were located in the permeant backlot of the Jaba Studios Centre in Oxford, with it being outdoors and therefore open to the weather. It was built exclusively for the show, with a specification that it should last 10 years. Most of the houses and buildings which weren't used for filming consisted of facades. The set had to be made to look as if it had been standing for years. This was done by a number of means, including chipping the pavements, using chemicals to crack the top layer of the paintwork, using varnish to create damp patches underneath the railway bridge, and making garden walls in such a way they appeared to sag. The final touches were added in summer 2009, with the addition of utility poles, parked vehicles, and planted vegetation. However, it should be noted that external locations were also used to make the show seem more believable. For the second season of Pandora, the town underwent some significant changes. Among the first noticeable of these changes were the removal of a shop facade and a mansion in order to make room for a park. The aim of the second season was "to expand the world of Pandora", and therefore, several new streets and outside-Pandora-locations were added. As the show was filmed in the Spring/Summer of each year and was broadcasted in Autumn/Winter, fake-vegetation was used to mirror the Autumn/Winter seasonal appearance. There was a longer break than usual between the productions of Season 4 and Season 5, to accommodate for the one-year time jump and opportunities for the cast to participate in other productions. Hence, the set was changed with new changes such as a golf club, and to show the area had aged, with the growth of vegetation and wearing down of infrastructure. This resulted in Season 5 premiering 20 months after the Season 4 finale. Filming for the series ended June 15th, 2016. Although, the spin-off Fabrication uses the set in for flashbacks. Moreover, Jaba Studios gave the right for other television-productions to begin filming on the set. Promotion Pandora was called one of the most spectacular new shows of autumn 2011 thanks to heavy promotion by Jaba Studios, including an intriguing poster and several promos. Jaba Studios encouraged fans to watch each episode together, and "discuss it with the world using #Pandora on Twitter!". The show's official Facebook and Twitter accounts promoted special fan features, such as "exclusive behind-the-scenes peaks". Music Main article: List of Pandora albums The theme song for Pandora is "I'm Not Calling You A Liar" by Florence + The Machine, which was suggested by one of the executive producers, Ellen Donaghy. The show features "the perfect mix of scored and vocal music". The show's composed music is mainly electronic-based, but every scoring session incorporates a live string ensemble. The score is not distributed due to copyright issues. However, each season's vocal-music, such as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Diana Ross, is distributed under a yearly album after the finale episode. The fifth season began using prominently contract-signed music, such as Glass Animal's "How To Be A Human Being" album, and The Weeknd's "Beauty Behind The Madness" album. '' Ratings Since the first episode, Pandora has been popular, however notably has increased in popularity from the first to the fourth season with an 8.55 million viewership average difference. The most popular episode to date is the season three finale, with 11.09 million, and season four's premiere and finale episodes, yielding 15.49 million and 14.32 million viewers respectively. Although the fifth season sees the decrease in popularity, the show maintains a steady average viewership of above 10 million, demonstrating the cultural importance of the show.